The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

[email protected]

There's an unusual oak Pathé Actuelle on craigslist Des Moines Iowa and the price is a reasonable $400. If interested, I go through Des Moines on my way to Union. Jerry Blais

It is quite a beauty. https://desmoines.craigslist.org/atq/5423381427.html

I've always liked my Actuelle quite a lot, but even more since I switched the rooms that I use for office and workshop a couple of months ago. In the previous arrangement, as new machines came in and took pride of place, the Actuelle had been sort of shoved into a corner and more or less neglected. Since the switch, machines have been moved around and the Actuelle is now just to the side of my desk. It had had an annoying buzz when records hit a certain pitch, so I hadn't been using it much. Now that I've got it nearer to me, I've made some adjustments that got rid of the buzz, and I've been playing it more often. It has a nice sound that's waaay more suitable for close-range listening than the Orthophonics in the next room. With the needle arm balanced properly, it also seems to be quite gentle on records -- I rarely see any black dust at all after playing one, unless the record's in poor condition to begin with.

The specimen in the CL listing has the same problem many do (and mine did when I got it), a torn cone. Although the original cone on mine had been patched, I had a new cone made for mine by Buford Chidester, and that improved the quality of sound very significantly. The replaced veneer on the CL machine looks a little off, but not too bad, it seems from the pics. Overall it seems like a pretty nice Actuelle at a decent price, especially if a buyer were to, as the seller suggests, leave him the Vocalion records and take just the Pathés, for $350.

These are nice machines, both for their curious playback mechanism, and for the quality of sound they can produce when the cone is in good shape. I'm a little skeptical of the hack the seller has done by replacing the original nipple with a larger, aluminum one. It seems to me that might restrict the resonance of the cone somewhat, though of course that's just my guess. He does say that he's kept the original, and with that and a new replacement cone, I'd imagine this machine could once again be a fine player.

The knobs seem to be replacements tho.

"With or without the records". I would want all the records!!! Those brown/red Vocalions are nice to look at, and Hit of the Weeks are fun.

Oceangoer1 wrote:"With or without the records". I would want all the records!!! Those brown/red Vocalions are nice to look at, and Hit of the Weeks are fun.

Say nothing of the GREEN Okeh! That's the first I've seen.

James